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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247249">Not Quite a Fairytale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crysania/pseuds/Crysania'>Crysania</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Prince Ben Solo, Rated M for language</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:08:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,093</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247249</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crysania/pseuds/Crysania</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey lets a stranger use the phone of the café she works at late one night. It changes the whole course of her life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>To Find Your Kiss: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Not Quite a Fairytale</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMage13/gifts">DarkMage13</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s the same routine every night. Announce closing, watch the scramble of customers to grab just one more cup of coffee, pack up their laptops, hem and haw over whether or not they should grab one of the half-price scones before they rush out the door to head home.</p>
<p>Rey lives here.</p>
<p>Not <em>in</em> the café, but below it. Maz, the owner, took pity on her a few years back. She’d taken one look at her, this scraggly teenager, head held high as she counted out what little change she had for a day-old scone and a small coffee, and took her under her wing. That was just the sort of person Maz was.</p>
<p>No one knows where Maz came from.</p>
<p>No one even knows how old she is. She seems ancient, a tiny wizened old lady espousing wisdom and sarcasm to the patrons as if she were the prophet and they there to worship at her altar. Rey had been one of those worshippers, allowed in for whatever she could scrounge up that day.</p>
<p>Until the day Maz had stopped her before she got up at the end of night, put a hand on her shoulder, and told her there was a room in the basement no one had lived in for years. Rey had balked, of course she had. She was independent, she didn’t need anyone. But when she had looked at the snow falling and thought of the frigid trek across town to the bridge she hunkered down under each night, she’d caved.</p>
<p>Just for one night of course.</p>
<p>But then one night had become two, which became a week.</p>
<p>Maz offered her the job two weeks after she started sleeping in the tiny basement room and she had jumped at the chance. She’d fumbled her way through it and now, some five years later, she was comfortable here. The place was as much <em>hers</em> as it was Maz’s, and her tiny basement room was decorated with various things she’d scavenged along the way.</p>
<p>It wasn’t much. But it was <em>hers</em>, and that counted for more than anything else, really. She’d never had anything she could call her own before.</p>
<p>“Best get a move on,” comes the voice behind her and she whips around. Maz stands close by, a soft smile on her face. “Daydreaming again?”</p>
<p>Rey shrugs. “Thinking about everything.”</p>
<p>Maz puts a hand on her shoulder and Rey bends just slightly so she’s able to reach. Rey’s not particularly tall, maybe slightly above average, but Maz tops out at just barely four feet tall. “You need to stop living in the past,” Maz tells her. It’s not the first time Rey has heard this.</p>
<p>“I’m…” She sighs. “I’m not. Not really at least.” <em>They’re never coming back</em>. She’s heard that before too and she doesn’t need Maz to remind her. Her parents had left her, at the tender age of five, by a dumpster behind the local Walmart. Rey was left with nothing more than a blanket and a tattered teddy bear that she’s tucked away into the top drawer of her dresser.</p>
<p>“Come on then,” Maz says. “We should clean up.” She steps around Rey and glances out the window. It’s dark now, and Rey can hear the rain starting to hit the window. “Storm’s coming.”</p>
<p>Rey pulls out her phone and flips to the weather app. “Big storm,” she notes. Heavy rain, thunder and lightning. “You should go home before it hits.”</p>
<p>Maz looks like she’s going to refuse, her hand gripping the rag she’s holding tight. But then she sighs. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”</p>
<p>“You’re not,” Rey says, soft smile on her face. She reaches out and briefly touches Maz’s shoulder. It’s the most affectionate she gets, still not one to open up to others. “Go. I can take care of the rest and I don’t have to drive in this mess.”</p>
<p>With a sigh, Maz tosses the rag on the table. “I shouldn’t…”</p>
<p>Rey shakes her head. “Go. I’m <em>serious</em>, Maz. I’d feel better if you were home sitting by the fire with a good book. It won’t take long to clean up here.”</p>
<p>“Ok, child,” she finally says. “You win. I’m going home.”</p>
<p>“Text me when you get there?”</p>
<p>Maz lets out a little huff. Rey knows she hates texting. But she’ll do it anyway, if for no reason other than because she loves Rey and she knows how much she’ll worry.</p>
<p>She hears the sound of Maz’s keys jangle and then the door opening and slamming shut.</p>
<p>With a sigh, she sets to wiping down the tables, refilling the cups of sugar packets, putting away the things of creamer and milk that are set out for customer use. She’s done it a million times before. Sometimes with Maz, sometimes alone. She enjoys these moments, the peace and quiet of a café that for the moment is hers and hers alone.</p>
<p>She can hear the wind picking up, and the rain starts to hit the windows with ever-increasing ferocity. She’s cleaning out one of the coffee pots when something slams against the door. With a yelp, she nearly drops the pot, scrambling to hang onto it as she turns to look at the door.</p>
<p>There’s a streak of lightning.</p>
<p>She draws in a breath.</p>
<p>There’s something leaning against the door.</p>
<p>No, not <em>something</em>, she realizes as it moves and the eyes of a very tall, very wet, man stare through the door at her.</p>
<p>She stares back.</p>
<p><em>Fuck</em>.</p>
<p>And then he pounds on the door, and she jumps a little, her hands reaching out to grip the counter. There have been men before, drunk, who have tried to break in. It’s only glass, their door. It wouldn’t take much for someone to throw a brick through it and break in.</p>
<p>But he doesn’t.</p>
<p>He bangs on it again and shouts something.</p>
<p>She steps closer to the door.</p>
<p>“Please,” she can hear him say. “My car broke down. It’s pouring.”</p>
<p>Another streak of lightning.</p>
<p>“I just need to make a phone call.”</p>
<p>As she steps closer, she realizes there’s a pleading, almost panicked look in his dark eyes. His hair, unfashionably long, is plastered to the sides of his face.</p>
<p>“Please?” he shouts, his forehead pressing against the door as he stares at her.</p>
<p>There’s a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder at almost the same time. The man on the other side of the door jumps.</p>
<p>“Fuck!” he shouts.</p>
<p>She giggles. She doesn’t know why, really. But for some reason, he’s suddenly just this <em>guy</em>. Soaked to the skin and annoyed at the weather.</p>
<p>She finally moves and turns the handle on the door. The man stumbles in and shakes his head like a dog. Water droplets everywhere. She didn’t realize, when he was on the other side, just how <em>large</em> he really is. If he wants to hurt her, he’ll be able to. He’s over a head taller than her and built like a brick shithouse.</p>
<p>Well, fuck. Fuck indeed.</p>
<p>“You don’t have a cell phone?” Everyone has a cell phone.</p>
<p>And he does. He pulls it out of his pocket, turns it toward her. “Dead,” he says with a shrug. There’s a sheepish look on  his face.</p>
<p>“Oh.” She’s not sure what else to say.</p>
<p>“Phone?” he asks.</p>
<p>She blinks. “Right. Yes, of course. Come this way.” She starts to direct him back to the office area in the back, but then stops. “You uh…”</p>
<p>His eyes follow her gaze to the floor. There’s a puddle forming there, where hair and clothes are all dripping onto the freshly mopped floors. “Fuck,” he says again. “Sorry.” He steps away from the puddle, but all he succeeds in doing is moving the water from one spot to another.</p>
<p>“I don’t have any towels,” she says. What a fucking stupid thing to say.</p>
<p>“Paper?”</p>
<p>“Are you able to speak more than one word at a time?” <em>Don’t be rude, Rey</em>.</p>
<p>He stares at her for a moment, then – “ No.” There’s a small tilt to one side of his almost too-generous lips. <em>Kissable</em>, she thinks, and then tries not to blush.</p>
<p>She laughs. This is ridiculous.</p>
<p>“There’s a roll of paper towels behind the counter. It’s not much, but you might be able to dry your face a little.”</p>
<p>He grunts but follows her to the front counter. She tosses the roll at him and watches as he tries to dry his mop of dark hair, wipes the rainwater from his face and neck. He’s still soaked to the skin, but at least he’s stopped dripping all over the floors.</p>
<p>“Come on then,” she says, waving for him to follow her. She opens the door to Maz’s office. “The phone’s in there.”</p>
<p>He steps by her and she thinks that the room looks rather a lot smaller than usual. “I’ll just be up front if you need anything…”</p>
<p>She turns away.</p>
<p>“I can,” she hears him say and turns back to look at him. He has that small half-smirk on his face again.</p>
<p>“Can?”</p>
<p>“Speak more than one word at a time.”</p>
<p>She can’t help the laugh that bubbles up at that. “Go make your phone call.”  </p>
<p>He stares at her for another moment before finally nodding and retreating to the other side of the desk.</p>
<p>Rey leaves him then. She needs to mop the floors again and, well, there’s no time like the present.</p>
<hr/>
<p>His conversation lasts longer than she expects. She’s already mopped the floor and he’s still in Maz’s office.</p>
<p>
  <em>Maybe he’s getting a friend to come kill you.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Maybe they want to kidnap you.</em>
</p>
<p><em>Maybe they</em>…</p>
<p>“Will you just come get me, already?” she hears his voice, loud and clear from the back room. “I left it on the street where it died.”</p>
<p>A pause.</p>
<p>She sneaks toward the doorway and risks a glance inside. His back is to her and he’s gesturing with the hand not holding the phone.</p>
<p>“Well, what else was I supposed to do...We can get it in the morn…Seriously. Stop.” His left hand clenches into a fist. “I don’t know. Some coffee shop.” The fist pounds on the table. “Can’t you trace the line...Fine. Hang on.”</p>
<p>She backs away from the doorway as he sets the phone down and starts to turn. She’s already over at the coffee machine fiddling with it when he comes out of the room.</p>
<p>“This is stupid,” he mutters.</p>
<p>“Sorry?” she asks. “Friend giving you some trouble?”</p>
<p>He makes a small huffing noise. “Always.”</p>
<p>“Doesn’t seem like much of a friend,” she points out.</p>
<p>“You don’t know the half of it,” he mutters. “Look, this seems dumb. I don’t actually know where I am…”</p>
<p>“Maz’s,” she says.</p>
<p>“Hmm?”</p>
<p>“The coffee shop? It’s called Maz’s Café. On North Main.”</p>
<p>“What…”</p>
<p>“Town? You’re not from around here but your friend lives close enough to pick you up?</p>
<p>” It’s a small town, she supposes. Middle of nowhere. But they’re not far from the capitol city of their principality. She supposes it’s possible he’d never passed this way before, but it still seems odd.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says. He looks like he wants to say something else but then shrugs.</p>
<p>“Juranno.”</p>
<p>“Thanks.” He retreats to the office where she hears him demand again that his friend come get him.</p>
<p>“Use dad’s car,” he says. “Please.” The last sounds half like a plea, but there’s just enough annoyance behind the word for her to think it’s not quite sincere.</p>
<p>He slams the phone down then and turns. “Sorry,” she mutters, stepping back and away from the door. “I didn’t mean to…”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” he cuts her off with. “I’m sure you’re curious.”</p>
<p>“I’m Rey,” she says instead. “I guess I should have said that earlier.”</p>
<p>He swallows hard and she can’t quite shake the feeling that he doesn’t want to say his name. “Kylo,” he finally says.</p>
<p>He’s staring at her and she feels herself heat a little at the scrutiny. “There’s um…well, some day-old scones. They’re pretty good when heated up. And I could put on a pot of coffee?”</p>
<p>He just blinks and she’s surprised to see his shoulders relax just a little. She hadn’t realized how tense he looked, his shoulders bunched up and a slight frown turning down the corners of his mouth.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says.</p>
<p>“One word again,” she points out.</p>
<p>His eyes narrow for a moment and then he smirks, and it’s that crooked grin that makes her feel a little warm inside.</p>
<p>“I’d like a scone, please,” he says. Almost formal, really, the way he says it. His eyes don’t leave hers and she has to shake herself a little.</p>
<p>“Coffee?”</p>
<p>“One word?” he shoots back with.</p>
<p>“That was two,” she points out.</p>
<p>“Three.” He laughs, and it transforms his face entirely, revealing slightly crooked teeth and a smile that she finds a little too magnetic. “Sorry,” he murmurs, probably when he realizes she’s not laughing.</p>
<p>“No, don’t. You just…” She doesn’t know what to say. Surprised her? She doesn’t know him at all, save his name, but he seems so serious. The laughter seems almost out of place.</p>
<p>“Decaf,” he says in answer. And then – “It’s late. I’ll have some decaf if you don’t mind.” She nods and turns away and is surprised to hear him ask her to join him.</p>
<p>She only hesitates for a moment. <em>Don’t sit with the customers, </em>Rey. Well, it’s not like the place is open. And he’s not a customer. Not really at least.</p>
<p>And hell, it’s not like she has anything to do that night. She had planned to just hunker down in her apartment, take a bath maybe, read a little and then fall asleep. This somehow seems like a better use of her time.</p>
<p>“Sure,” she says, and turns away to put the coffee on and find a couple of the leftover scones from earlier in the day.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“<em>Rosie</em>,” she says, a little whine in her voice.</p>
<p>“I don’t know him,” her friend says.</p>
<p>“You’ve lived here your whole life. You said you know the whole town…”</p>
<p>“Maybe he was just passing through?”</p>
<p>He did indicate that, somehow, that he wasn’t <em>from</em> their little town, but he also sounded much like the rest of the area residents. He can’t have come from too far away. She needs to know, though. His friend had taken over an hour to get there, and Rey had sat across from him the whole time. He was prickly, he was sarcastic, he was <em>funny</em> and charming in a way that made her insides feel a little like jello.</p>
<p>She had <em>liked</em> him. And then he was gone, just like that, and Rey wished she had been smart enough to ask for his phone number. Or even more than just his first name.</p>
<p>“I mean maybe…but come on, you would totally remember him. Tall, long dark hair, dark eyes. He said his name is Kylo. Do you know any Kylos? That’s not exactly a usual name.”</p>
<p>She could imagine Rose shrugging at that. “I really don’t, babe. I’m sorry. I wish I did.” She pauses there and Rey can hear someone in the background. Rose sighs. “I gotta go. The <em>Prince</em> calls.”</p>
<p>“Ok Rosie. I’ll see you later?”</p>
<p>“Sure thing, babe.” And then she’s gone, and Rey can’t help but roll her eyes. She’d met Rose on her first day working for Maz. Rey had been a sullen, worried teenager, too thin and scared out of her wits. She’d spilled coffee all over the counter and burned her scone and Rose had just laughed. It had turned out they were almost the same age, and once they got talking, they just didn’t stop.</p>
<p>Rose now worked at the castle. And when she says Palace, she means <em>The</em> <em>Castle</em>. This rinky-dink little country has a legitimate monarchy. Weirdest thing she’d ever seen. Rey is from Jakku and they do <em>not</em> have such a thing. But here, everything is about King Han and Queen Leia, and their reclusive son, Prince Benjamin. He’s almost thirty, Rose tells her, and still not married. A constant bit of strife with his mother, really, and it’s trickled down to the staff.</p>
<p>
  <em>They have these girls, Rey Rey. His mother parades them around all the time. And he doesn’t do a damned thing about it, but sulk around the castle and glare at them. </em>
</p>
<p>Her life at the castle is certainly far more interesting than Rey’s at the café, but she’ll take that over the excitement.</p>
<p>“Rey!” comes Maz’s voice from somewhere above her. “I need you up here.”</p>
<p>“Shift doesn’t start for another half hour!” Rey calls up to her.</p>
<p>Maz is at the top of the stairs when she shouts down to her next and for a tiny woman, her voice sure does carry. “This ain’t about work, child. Get up here <em>now</em>.”</p>
<p>The frantic note in her voice gives Rey pause. Maz can be a little high strung. She’s known that ever since she stumbled into her life. But she’s never heard her sound like this. A little agitated, a little worried. <em>Had something happened? Her parents?</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Her parents!</em>
</p>
<p>“Coming,” Rey says, glancing at her work apron for a moment before rushing up the stairs. If it is her parents, she doesn’t want to look like…like…well, <em>her</em>. Hair tossed back in the buns she hopes her mother will recognize, clothes a little ratty, clearly second hand, work apron on and ready to serve people.</p>
<p>When she rushes out into the café, she stops.</p>
<p>It’s not her parents.</p>
<p>She knows that deep inside.</p>
<p>Two men stand just inside the doorway, dressed all in black, one still has his sunglasses on even though he’s inside. And frankly, he looks a little ridiculous. The other man’s eyes flit to her and give her a once over and she feels…dirty. His eyes are ice blue, cold, his red hair is slicked back and there’s a sneer on his face. She feels under-dressed and unkempt under his cold gaze.</p>
<p>“This is her?” he says and there’s a clipped tone to his voice, an accent that’s not so dissimilar to her own, and that makes her curious. Could he be someone who <em>knows</em> her parents? She’s about a half second from rushing forward and begging him for word of them, when Maz speaks.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Rey’s head whips around to look at Maz so fast she’s afraid she might have caused a neck pull. “Maz?”</p>
<p>The look on Maz’s face isn’t one she’s seen before. There’s always been compassion there. Never pity. But there’s a little of that in the pinched corners of her mouth.</p>
<p>“Rey, child,” she says as she steps closer to her, reaching up to remove her thick coke bottle classes and taking Rey’s hand. “These men have come for you.”</p>
<p>“I…” She looks over Maz’s head at the red-haired man again. He’s watching them carefully, one hand on the door as if he fears she’ll bolt. “My parents?” She can’t help the note of hope that creeps into her voice. Even after all this time…</p>
<p>“No, child. I’m sorry. These…”</p>
<p>“This is taking too long,” the man says, nodding at the sunglasses man and striding across the room as the other man puts <em>his</em> hand on the door. “I am General Armitage Hux.” He makes a quick bow and Rey just stares at him. She has no idea if that’s supposed to mean something to her. It doesn’t. “I have a missive here to retrieve Lady Rey and bring her to the castle.”</p>
<p>“Lady…”</p>
<p>“It seems we have been remiss,” Hux says, sniffing slightly.</p>
<p>Rey crosses her arms over her chest. “Is this a joke? I’m no lady.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps not before, but you have…<em>inherited</em>…a title, of sorts.” His lips press together. “And as such, you need to attend the Alderaanian Finishing School.”</p>
<p>“Finishing? I’m plenty finished enough for this job.” She has no idea what a <em>finishing</em> school even is, but she has a job, a secure life. She’s thought that maybe someday she might like to pursue something…a career of sorts, but she knows that the reality is she’s mostly likely to take over the café when Maz retires. And she’s okay with that. More than okay, really. She loves the café and she loves their customers and she loves Maz like the mother she never really had.</p>
<p>Hux makes a scoffing noise. “You don’t work here anymore.”</p>
<p>Rey takes a step back, her eyes going from Maz to Hux and then back to Maz again. “Maz? What does he mean?”</p>
<p>Maz sighs, the sound almost wrung out of her tiny body. “Oh, child.”</p>
<p>“We don’t have time for this,” Hux bites out. “Prince Solo needs us back.”</p>
<p>“Well, Prince <em>Solo</em> can just suck it,” Rey shoots back with.</p>
<p>Hux’s face turns an alarming shade of red, but it’s the man at the door who suddenly has her attention.</p>
<p>He laughs.</p>
<p>Hux turns to glare at him.</p>
<p>“Is there something funny Lieutenant Storm?”</p>
<p>The other man shrugs his broad shoulders. “I like her,” is all he says. There’s something <em>nice</em> about his voice, and his smile is genuine. He takes off his sunglasses then and dark eyes fall on her. “Lieutenant Finn Storm, miss,” is all he says, but there’s still a warmth in his voice that she likes.</p>
<p>Rey finds herself smiling back.</p>
<p>“Look, we’ve been commanded to bring you to the finishing school,” Hux says.</p>
<p>“You don’t have a choice, child,” Maz says quietly.</p>
<p>She turns to look at her. “But your café…”</p>
<p>“I’ll get by until you’re back.”</p>
<p>“Will I be coming back?”</p>
<p>“That depends,” Hux says. Another sniff.</p>
<p>“On?”</p>
<p>He lets out an exasperated sigh. “Can we just go? All of this will be discussed with you later, Lady Rey.”</p>
<p>“Just go,” Maz says and Rey <em>hates</em> that there are tears in the older woman’s eyes.</p>
<p>“I want to be able to come back.”</p>
<p>“<em>Rey</em>,” Maz says, and shakes her head.</p>
<p>She reaches out to hug Maz to her, and she fears she may never see her again. <em>The castle</em>. The only thing that might be good is that Rose is there. And maybe she can find out what’s going on from her.</p>
<p><em>Lady Rey…as if</em>…</p>
<p>“Okay,” Rey says, stepping back from Maz and turning to the two men who had come to escort her. “I’ll go.”</p>
<p>“Finally!” Hux says, and as he turns to open the door, she’s almost sure she sees a bit of relief on his face. He still looks tense, pinched, a little angry. But there’s definitely a flash of <em>something</em> in his eyes as they escort her out the door.</p>
<p>Her last view of the café as she’s led to the car is of Maz, her face pressed against the glass door, watching as she’s led away.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She’s been at the castle for a <em>week</em> and she’s bored. They had showed her to a room. A lovely one, to be sure, with a large comfortable bed, and a little desk. And a <em>window</em>. She hasn’t ever had a window. It looks out over a courtyard where she sometimes sees the foot soldiers running drills or young ladies strolling.</p>
<p>Young ladies in fancy dresses and parasols and everything Rey can’t ever imagining wanting to be. She’s a street urchin, with hand-me-down clothes and one half-working umbrella she hadn’t even brought with her.</p>
<p>She’d brought nothing.</p>
<p>When she’d arrived, someone had been assigned to take her measurements and bring her some clothes. <em>Lady Rey</em>, they all called her, like she was somehow above them. She tried to talk to the maids, the butler, even the cook. But they all looked so horrified that she had finally just stopped.</p>
<p>At least they’d brought her somewhat utilitarian clothes, none of that fancy stuff she’s seen the other ladies wearing.</p>
<p>It’s on the third day of the second week at the castle, that she sees him.</p>
<p><em>Kylo</em>.</p>
<p>She’s been brought down for her first day of <em>finishing</em> school, and a bad joke about how she’s already 19 and pretty sure she’s fully grown, has the man who was skirting around them suddenly stopping to look.</p>
<p>He stares, his eyes a little wide.</p>
<p>He looks different here, in the castle. Still tall and broad, still dressed in black, but his hair is now dry and instead of being pitch black, it’s a lovely shade of black with dark brown streaks through it.</p>
<p>She stops.</p>
<p>The woman leading her turns back and reaches out for her arm. “Lady Rey,” she says, and there’s a sharp rebuke in her tone. When Rey looks back up at her, the woman’s eyes are narrowed on Kylo.</p>
<p>Kylo looks strangely sheepish, and shrugs.</p>
<p>“Enough of this lollygagging, Miss. Holdo is waiting for you and we’re already late.”</p>
<p>Rey sighs. She supposes there’s no point in <em>lollygagging</em>. Kylo has disappeared and she has no idea where to find him.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rey sags when they’re released from their latest torture. This one is called “posture training” and she can rather clearly that it works. Amilyn Holdo, better known to the girls in the finishing school as <em>The Admiral</em>, has the straightest posture she’s ever seen. It would look unnatural on Rey, she’s sure of that much at least. But Holdo walks with a grace that no one can deny, back ramrod straight, head always poised.</p>
<p>And Rey <em>does not get it</em>. She’s been walking back and forth with books on her head all afternoon. Or, she would be at least, if most of them hadn’t hit the ground. One hit her foot and she was rushed to the infirmary to make sure she hadn’t broken her toe (she hadn’t, but it sure as heck felt like she did).</p>
<p>She’d been sent back and immediately set back to work with the stupid books that wouldn’t stay on her stupid head.</p>
<p>“Good job today, ladies,” Holdo says, but she shoots Rey a look and she knows that <em>good job</em> bit wasn’t for her. Rey is leaning back against the wall, with her eyes half shut when Holdo approaches.</p>
<p>“You’re a disaster,” Holdo says.</p>
<p>“I know,” Rey mutters.</p>
<p>“Where <em>did</em> you come from?” the woman muses, and Rey opens her eyes to see her studying her like she’s a bug on a microscope.</p>
<p>“Jakku,” she mutters, and Holdo’s eyebrows shoot up.</p>
<p>“Not what I would have expected.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “But it makes sense.” She turns to the whole group then to release them and Rey slinks off. They’ll have supper later in the dining room, another place to practice <em>etiquette</em>. Like Rey really cares which fork to use or how to drink from the too-fragile glasses they offer her.</p>
<p>This isn’t her world.</p>
<p>And she doesn’t know why she’s here.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She runs into him in the hallway on the way down to supper. He’s slinking along in the dark and she doesn’t see him at first. It’s only when she runs into something (a big, <em>solid</em> something), and that big, solid something makes a grunting noise, that she realizes it’s even a person.</p>
<p>“Oh, sorry.”</p>
<p>“Finishing school going well then, is it?” comes the voice above her, as large, long-fingered hands grip her lightly by the arm and set her back on her feet.</p>
<p>“Kylo,” she whispers. “I thought I saw you the other day.”</p>
<p>“I’m hard to miss,” he mutters, that little quirk at the side of his mouth appearing again. She takes a step back. She’s really too close to him and she can’t quite <em>breathe</em> standing there. He looks like some sort of Greek God, and she’d somehow forgotten just how broad he really was. Maybe it’s that he looks so much <em>more</em> when he’s not a drowned rat buried in too many layers of clothing and with his hair clinging to the sides of his face.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she says. “I suppose you are.”</p>
<p>He stares at her for a moment. “Well, that <em>almost</em> sounded like you’re learning something from Amilyn.”</p>
<p>“You know her?”</p>
<p>There’s a little red tint to his cheeks. “I…uh…yeah. I mean, doesn’t everyone know who the Admiral is?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t,’ Rey points out. “I don’t know who <em>anyone</em> here is. I don’t even know why I’m here. They came and dragged me out of the café, started calling me <em>Lady</em>, and dumped me here without any word as to why.”</p>
<p>He looks even more sheepish at that, but then finally shrugs his shoulders. “Who came for you? At the café, I mean…”</p>
<p>“Some jerk named Hux. Little pinched mouth, orange hair.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, he’s a real asshole,” Kylo says, and smirks.</p>
<p>“You know him then? Do you work for him?”</p>
<p>“I…uh….” He runs one big hand through his hair, messing it up enough on that side that Rey has to stop herself from reaching up to fix it. “Something like that.”</p>
<p>She narrows her eyes on him. “What do you do here anyway?”</p>
<p>“You know…stuff.” He shrugs.</p>
<p>“Stuff.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Do you know why I’m here?”</p>
<p>“I’ve heard some rumors.”</p>
<p>“Such as?”</p>
<p>“Nothing concrete.”</p>
<p>She takes a step closer to him. “There’s something you’re not telling me.” He takes a step back and she follows him until his back is up against the wall and she’s nearly pressed against him and damn, but he does smell good, and she finds she wants to press just a little closer to him, feel the muscles she can see in his chest.</p>
<p><em>Fuck</em>.</p>
<p>She pushes away from him and takes a deep breath.</p>
<p>“I don’t know who you are, Kylo. But I’m going to find out.”</p>
<p>His Adam’s apple bobs as he stares at her. “I’m no one,” he finally says. And then he turns and stalks away. He disappears into the darkness of the hallway and when his footsteps finally fade away, she feels like she can breathe again.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She doesn’t see him for another two weeks.</p>
<p>She sometimes thinks she imagined their conversation in the hallway. Or she would have at least, if she didn’t remember <em>very clearly</em> the feel of his body pressed against hers.</p>
<p>She’d quizzed Rose on him as soon as she could. They’d met after dinner on one of her few free evenings, sneaking out to the gardens so Rey could ask her about him. Rose had come up blank, though there had been a strange look on her friend’s face when she’d given her Kylo’s description again.</p>
<p><em>Tall with long dark hair?</em> Rose had paused in the description before finally shrugging and insisting there were a lot of men there that fit that description.</p>
<p>There aren’t though. Most have shorter hair, and none of men she’s seen have those intense amber eyes or those plush lips. And she had the distinct impression Rose knew who he was but wasn’t telling her for some reason. It left her a little unsettled, really. She and Rose did <em>not</em> have secrets between them. And yet this hung over her for them.</p>
<p>When she sees him this time, he’s rushing somewhere. His head his down, hair hiding his face. He almost looks like he’s trying to hide, which is, quite frankly, completely ridiculous considering the sheer size of him.</p>
<p>And so she does the only thing she can think of doing. She follows him. He leads her down one long hallway, then turns and leads her down another. Once, he stops and glances over his shoulder, like he thinks he might be followed. But she ducks into an alcove and watches as he shakes his head and continues.</p>
<p>They’re really in the bowels of the castle now and he’s taken so many turns, she’s sure she’s going to be wandering there forever trying to find her way out. She’ll starve to death in some lonely corridor and someday some servant will stumble upon nothing but her bones.</p>
<p>He’s turned another corner and with a sigh, she rushes to catch up. As soon as she ducks around the corner, she realizes two things: she really should have crept around it instead of rushing in like she usually does, and Kylo absolutely knows he’s being followed.</p>
<p>He’s right there and he turns back toward her, hand coming up to grip her neck and pin her against the wall. His body presses too close to hers, his eyes dark, brows low. He stares at her for a moment, almost like he doesn’t recognize her, like he’d kill her if he’s given half the chance.</p>
<p>And then he draws his hand back like he’s touched fire and his whole body sags. “Fuck, Rey. What are you doing?”</p>
<p>She shrugs, trying to look nonchalant, even though she can still feel his fingers around her throat. “I wanted to see where you were going.”</p>
<p>“Don’t,” is all he says.</p>
<p>“Kylo…”</p>
<p>“I mean it, Rey. You don’t want to know who I am. Not really.”</p>
<p>Her chin tilts up, mouth set. “You’re wrong about that.”</p>
<p>He says nothing for a moment, but he’s breathing hard through his nose, lips pressed together in a tight, straight line. “You’d be disappointed,” he finally says.</p>
<p>When he turns to walk away, Rey starts to follow again. But he turns back to her and holds up one hand. “If you turn around and take your first left, then your third right, you’ll get back to the main hall.”</p>
<p>He walks off without a backward glance, and this time Rey lets him go.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Another week goes by without seeing him, but then she catches a glimpse of him during one of their lessons. He’s watching them…no, that’s wrong. He’s watching <em>her</em>. There’s a strange gleam in his eyes, like he is as drawn to her as she is to him.</p>
<p>And then he’s suddenly <em>always</em> there. Every time the girls are out in the hall practicing their walking, Kylo is there. He lurks at the corners of the rooms, is seen watching from the stairs above them. Every time he meets her eyes, there’s a flash of something in his eyes and a small smirk on his face.</p>
<p>She tries hard to do everything right for Holdo.</p>
<p>She really does.</p>
<p>But every time he’s there, she feels <em>nervous</em>. And she loses any rhythm she has. The book falls from her head. She chooses the wrong fork. Once she even tipped over a glass of probably very expensive wine at a dinner function for the girls.</p>
<p>That one was the worst, really. Holdo had told them that this was their chance to <em>prove</em> themselves, to practice all they’d learn in a real situation. Rey had been doing fairly well, looking to the other girls before taking her fork and eating carefully instead of just cramming her face full of food as she usually does.</p>
<p>And then Kylo had ducked in.</p>
<p>He’d given her that smile.</p>
<p><em>That fucking smile</em>.</p>
<p>And she’d knocked over the glass, sending the wine flying across the table, soaking the very fine linen tablecloth. There’s a squeal from the girl next to her. One of the <em>perfect</em> ones, with her hair in perfect golden ringlets, her face a perfect pale oval with perfect red lips. She leaps up and glares at Rey. “You did that on purpose!” she screeches at her.</p>
<p>Rey flinches. “I didn’t. I’m just…I’m…sorry?” What else can she say? <em>Sorry but that guy makes me fucking nervous and please don’t blame me for that</em>.</p>
<p>When she looks up, Kylo is frowning. She almost fears he’s going to say something, but then his lips flatten, and he turns on his heels. He’s gone between one breath and the next. And she’s left to face the irate looks from the other girls at their dinner and the disappointment coming off Holdo.</p>
<p>Not even anger.</p>
<p>She could take anger.</p>
<p>It’s the disappointment she can’t bear, and so Rey sits down, picks up her napkin and dabs ineffectually at the wine soaking into the table. She’s left to stare at that stain through the rest of dinner. She wonders if it will ever come out.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“They’re teaching you how to dance.”</p>
<p>Rey’s walking down the hallway to her room when she hears his voice. She stops and wants to roll her eyes <em>so hard</em>.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she says instead.</p>
<p>“Hmmm…”</p>
<p>She finally turns around to face him, and finds him leaning up against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He looks even more massive like that somehow. Like, he’s trying to appear small, nonchalant, and instead he just looks like this behemoth. “Why are you always watching us?” she blurts out.</p>
<p>His eyebrows raise. “That was rather pointed,” he responds with.</p>
<p>“That’s not an answer.”</p>
<p>“Maybe I like watching pretty ladies?” That’s offered with a bit of a smirk.</p>
<p>Rey shakes her head. “No, I don’t believe that.” She raises one hand up to stop him when he looks like he’s about to protest. “I’m sure you like seeing the ‘pretty ladies.’ But I don’t think that’s why you’re watching us.” She steps a little closer. “Why you’re watching <em>me</em>.”</p>
<p>And that one lands.</p>
<p>His flinch would be unnoticeable to anyone who wasn’t paying attention. But Rey’s been watching him too, sneaking glances at him during every outing, every lesson. And one thing she knows…he’s not watching <em>them</em>. He’s watching <em>her</em>. It’s as plain as the overly large ears sticking out from his dark hair.</p>
<p>“I…”</p>
<p>“You’re not as good at covering it up as you think, Kylo.”</p>
<p>She expects some sort of bravado from him, but instead she sees the color on his cheeks redden just a little. “Whatever,” he mumbles.</p>
<p>“That’s all you can say?”</p>
<p>He shrugs. “How are the dance lessons going?” He almost seems…eager. Like he really wants to know the answer.</p>
<p>“About as well as you could expect considering I grew up on the streets of Jakku and spent most of my life either running from the law or working in a café.”</p>
<p>“You were in trouble with the law?”</p>
<p>“<em>That</em> is what you got out of that? Kylo,” she says, taking yet another step toward him. “I grew up in <em>Jakku</em>. I was the runner for an illegal car parts ring run by Plutt.” His eyes widen at that. “I see you’ve heard of him.”</p>
<p>“Everyone knows Plutt.”</p>
<p>Unkar Plutt. He’d taken her in when she was a kid, soon after she’d been abandoned by her parents. She’d been lost and confused and scared, and Plutt had scooped her up, given her a corner of a room with a bunch of other kids he “fostered” and sent her out into the streets to help steal cars and strip them of their parts. It had been a horrid life. She’d managed to escape him eventually, running from Plutt <em>and</em> the law, just a dirty urchin hiding out on the streets. She’d heard a year or so ago that Plutt’s reign of terror in Jakku had ended. She’s still not sure if he’s in jail or dead, but it doesn’t matter. She’s safe from him and she will <em>never</em> go back to that life.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” she finally says with a small shudder. “You’ve <em>heard</em> of him. But none of you really know him.”</p>
<p>Kylo shrugs and there’s something a little tight in the motion.</p>
<p>“So no, the lessons aren’t going well. I can’t even say I have two left feet. More like the back end of an ass.” The last is muttered with a little shake of her head.</p>
<p>Kylo laughs.</p>
<p>And she doesn’t know why she’s so surprised. His face is always too serious. She suspects he doesn’t laugh easily, so the sound of it washes over her and makes her smile.</p>
<p>“I doubt that,” he finally manages to get out.</p>
<p>“Oh, don’t doubt it at all.” She smirks. “I’m sure you’ll see us eventually.”</p>
<p>He raises an eyebrow at that. She knows she’s right. He’s there <em>so</em> often, and she keeps wanting to ask him what he even does at the castle, that he has so much free time. He’s never dressed like he’s working, always in black jeans and a dark shirt, hair mussed like he just crawled out of bed. But he’s freshly shaven, so she knows that he’s at least taken the time to look somewhat presentable.</p>
<p>“Listen, Rey…” he starts to say, when he freezes suddenly, his eyes looking just past her.</p>
<p>She looks over her shoulders and freezes herself. It’s the queen’s twin brother, Luke…Prince Luke, she supposes. His story is almost as strange as hers. He’d been separated from his sister, supposedly to save them both from his father, and had grown up in the wilds of Tattooine, where he’d been adopted by a group of monks. He still dresses like one of them and even though he’s been welcomed into his family with open arms, he’s an outsider of sorts.</p>
<p>Rey understands that all too well.</p>
<p>She steps over to the side of the corridor and looks to Kylo…</p>
<p>And he’s gone.</p>
<p>Just melted away into the shadows like he’d never been there.</p>
<p>Luke stops near her, and Rey does the only thing she can think of. She bows her head. He’s a prince after all, and who is she but a random street rat?</p>
<p>“No need for that, Lady Rey,” he says. His voice is soft, and when she looks up, his blue eyes are kind. “Were you lost?”</p>
<p>“Lost?”</p>
<p>“You know your way back to your room?” There’s a glint of something in his eyes, of knowing. She wants to ask if he knows who Kylo is, and she almost reaches out to him about it. But instead shakes her head.</p>
<p>“I’m fine. I know where my room is. It’s just…”</p>
<p>“Just?”</p>
<p>“I don’t belong here.”</p>
<p>“You want to go home,” he says, his voice flat.</p>
<p>Does she? She thinks of the mystery of exactly who Kylo is, thinks of the torture of her lessons, of the café, of Maz. “I think so?”</p>
<p>He nods. “When you figure that out, you come let me know.”</p>
<p>And then he walks off, whistling as he goes. She watches him as he slips down the corridor in the same direction Kylo must have disappeared.</p>
<p>She wonders if they know each other. They must, considering how much Kylo is around the castle. But…how?</p>
<p>She fears she’ll never get that answer.</p>
<hr/>
<p>That night she dreams of being at a ball.</p>
<p>There’s a man there. Tall, dark-haired. She thinks it must be Kylo, but she never can quite see his face in the dream, as if he’s just a little bit out of focus.</p>
<p>He comes to her though and bows low over her hand. He calls her <em>my lady</em> and asks her if he might have this dance. She agrees. Of course she does. Because in her dream, she’s light and airy as a feather. Her feet barely touch the ground as she glides after him, her hand wrapped around the crook of his elbow, her face looking up at him with shining adoration.</p>
<p>They weave and bob and twirl as he moves her around the dance floor. Here, she knows all the steps.</p>
<p>That’s how she knows it’s a dream. Her reality is quite different, but for the moment she can forget it.</p>
<p>Here, she’s everything she wants to be. Beautiful, graceful, witty, the fair noble lady they all wish she could be. Her skirts flow around her, all liquid grace, and her partner pulls her in close, whispers words in her ear that she can’t quite make.</p>
<p>When she wakes, the warmth fades and she’s left feeling bereft, alone, cold. She doesn’t belong here, and she doesn’t know why she tries to fit in. Why anyone <em>wants </em>her to fit in.</p>
<p>She needs answers.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Why am I here?” she asks Kylo the next time she sees him lurking about their classes. It’s been a grueling day and she <em>almost</em> managed to walk with her book on her head. It at least stayed up for more than a few seconds. Holdo had seemed proud.</p>
<p>At least, she did until Rey saw Kylo skulking about in one of the doorways, picked up her skirts, and ran out of the room to follow him like the Jakku street rat she really is. She can hear Holdo shouting after her, and almost laughs at the not so ladylike curse that comes out of the woman’s mouth.</p>
<p>“You made the Admiral curse,” Kylo says, a smile playing about his lips.</p>
<p>“I know that old battle axe had it in her,” Rey responds with. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”</p>
<p>“I have no answer.”</p>
<p>“I think you do,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. She feels a little exposed there. They’ve given her a dress with a corset (and oh holy hell, how terrible <em>that</em> was to get into), and she has this tiny bit of cleavage popping out of the top of it. She feels almost <em>naked</em>. “It has to be connected to you.”</p>
<p>“How so?” His words are nonchalant, but his eyes are wide and there’s color high on his cheeks.</p>
<p>“I meet you. And the next day that asshole Hux comes and they drag me off to this <em>finishing school. </em>No one will tell me why. Everyone keeps calling me <em>Lady</em> Rey like I didn’t grow up in Jakku. What do they want with me?”</p>
<p>Kylo’s eyes shift to her and then away.</p>
<p>“Why do you follow me around, but then tell me I don’t want to know you?”</p>
<p>He flinches.</p>
<p>“You know why I’m here, don’t you?” she asks.</p>
<p>He doesn’t respond, but he does finally meet her eyes, eyes wide and lips slightly parted.</p>
<p>She steps closer to him. “You do. Tell me.”</p>
<p>He doesn’t say anything for a moment, then – “Can I kiss you?”</p>
<p>Rey blinks. “What?”</p>
<p>“Fuck,” he mutters. “I mean…I want to. Kiss you…that is.”</p>
<p>“What if I say no?” Her chin tilts up a little. If she’s going to be totally honest with herself, she’s thought about it. She’s thought about it a <em>lot</em>.</p>
<p>“Then I won’t.”</p>
<p>“As simple as that?”</p>
<p>He nods. “As simple as that.”</p>
<p>“You’re distracting me,” she says after a moment.</p>
<p>“Is it working?”</p>
<p>And she laughs. She can’t <em>not</em> laugh. “Maybe a little.” She still wants to know why she’s here and more and more she’s <em>sure</em> it’s connected to him. If she knew who he was, what he wanted, why he kept showing up, she’s positive it would explain everything.</p>
<p>“Okay,” she finally says.</p>
<p>“Okay?” His brow scrunches up a little.</p>
<p>“You can kiss me.”</p>
<p>His eyebrows shoot up. “Really?” He takes a step closer to her.</p>
<p>“But just one kiss.”</p>
<p>“One,” he echoes. He doesn’t move from where he’s standing a few feet away from her.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid you’re going to have to step a little closer if you’re actually going to do this,” she points out.</p>
<p>“Right,” he says, and his cheeks redden. “Of course.” He takes another step toward her, and it’s like she can see the wheels spinning in his head.</p>
<p>“You <em>have</em> done this before, haven’t you?”</p>
<p>She didn’t think it was possible for his face to get any redder, but it does.</p>
<p>“Oh fuck, you haven’t.” She had meant it as a joke, a little something to ease the tension, but now she wonders if she hit a nerve. “Well, I guess I’ll need to…”</p>
<p>And she does. She steps forward, puts her hands on either side of his face, and goes up on tiptoes to press her lips to his. They’re soft, just as soft as they had looked. He makes a small noise in the back of his throat and wraps his arms around her, hauling her up against him.</p>
<p>When she pulls back, he tries follow her and she puts a finger to his lips. “Just one, remember?”</p>
<p>“Just one,” he echoes.</p>
<p>“Lady Rey!”</p>
<p>Rey grimaces. “The Admiral is calling.” She slips out of Kylo’s grasp and rushes back to the hall. She’s sure to get a tongue lashing from Holdo. But she’s not sure that really matters.</p>
<p>She <em>kissed</em> him.</p>
<hr/>
<p>There’s some sort of function at the castle that night and some of the girls in the finishing school have been requested to attend. <em>Rey</em> has not, of course. Because Rey is new and terrible and can’t seem to understand that using the correct fork <em>matters</em> and that she shouldn’t slurp her soup, and that her startle response to someone suddenly appearing is bad in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>It’s not her fault that she reacts that way, or that the servant who had surprised her in the corridor late one night when she went in search of a snack was still recovering from that kick to the groin she’d given the poor man.</p>
<p>But still, Holdo has told her she’s not to attend the ball.</p>
<p>Of course, that doesn’t mean she can’t sneak around and watch the whole affair from outside one of the windows. She’s never <em>seen</em> a real ball before, couldn’t even have imagined they were a thing. Not where she grew up, dirty and alone on the mean streets of Jakku.</p>
<p>She’s just settled herself onto a bench in the garden and can see inside the ballroom through one large window, when she hears a sound.</p>
<p>It’s a tiny one.</p>
<p>The crack of a stick, nothing more.</p>
<p>But she whips around, sliding off the bench and moving almost immediately into a defensive posture. People don’t sneak up on Rey. That’s simply not <em>done</em>.</p>
<p>“Whoa there, spitfire,” comes his voice a moment before Kylo steps out of the shadows. His hands are up high, and she can almost make out the flash of white teeth in the darkness. He’s smiling.</p>
<p>“It’s not funny,” she mutters. “And it’s not like you didn’t…”</p>
<p>“What are you doing out here? Ball not to your liking?”</p>
<p>She wraps her arms around her stomach and glares at him. “I wasn’t invited,” she says.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry…what?” He looks surprised about that much at least.</p>
<p>“I…wasn’t…<em>invited</em>. You know, they probably don’t want street urchins at these things.” She tosses the last off airily, like it doesn’t matter. But it does. And she hates that. She wants to fit in. She wants to look like one of those beautiful women, so poised, so elegant. It shouldn’t even matter. It never did before.</p>
<p>
  <em>Why am I here?</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Why me?</em>
</p>
<p>“I thought…” he starts to say.</p>
<p>“Only a few were invited.” She shrugs. “I guess I’m just a little too rough around the edges.” <em>Such a nice way to put that one, Rey</em>.</p>
<p>He steps closer to her and she’s struck again by his height, by his breadth. He’s watching her with dark eyes, and one hand comes up briefly toward her before clenching into a fist. “Did you want to?”</p>
<p>“Want…”</p>
<p>“Be there? I could make it happen.” He sounds almost eager at that.</p>
<p>“<em>You</em> could get me an invite to the ball?” She studies him as he draws in a ragged breath.</p>
<p>“I could.”</p>
<p>“Who are you?” He looks like he’s about to speak, and so she holds up her hand. “I know…you’re Kylo. But <em>who are you</em>?”</p>
<p>“I’m no one.” There’s a strange sort of bitterness behind the words.</p>
<p>“I doubt that,” she shoots back. “<em>I</em> am the no one here…”</p>
<p>“You’re not,” he says, the words a little harsh. He steps closer and one of his hands comes up to almost…<em>almost</em>…touch her face. “You’re not no one. Don’t say that.”</p>
<p>She wants to step back, wants to step <em>forward</em>. She does neither, standing toe to toe with him, one of his hands hanging in the air near her face. She can scarcely breathe as he leans a little closer to her. It’s dark there, just outside the room, where all things are beautiful and glittery. She can hear the muffled sounds of some sort of music, strings and perhaps a piano.</p>
<p>
  <em>He’s going to kiss me again.</em>
</p>
<p>She watches as his eyes flit to her lips and then move back up to meet hers again.</p>
<p><em>She wants him to</em>.</p>
<p>She tips her face up toward him and reaches for the hand that still hovers somewhere near her face, as if it doesn’t quite know where to land.</p>
<p>There’s a crash.</p>
<p>A laugh.</p>
<p>Rey’s eyes widen and she freezes. <em>Run, child</em>. And then she jumps back, whipping around. One of the other girls is there, arm linked with a young man, and she looks radiant. Her face is flushed, her eyes bright. Rey is sure the other couple doesn’t see her hiding there in the shadows, but she moves back just a hair anyway.</p>
<p>And collides with what must be the hard planes of Kylo’s chest.</p>
<p>He lets out a soft grunt, his arms wrapping around her and hauling her up against him. She can feel every plane of his body, every hard angle, the tight bands of his arms around her.</p>
<p>She tries to pull away.</p>
<p>His arms tighten a little more.</p>
<p>“Don’t,” he whispers, and his breath ghosts across the skin of her neck. She can feel it pucker there and she shivers.</p>
<p>“Kylo…” she starts to say.</p>
<p>“Shhh…” His lips are against her neck then, barely touching the skin at the juncture where shoulder meets neck. “I’m so glad you’re not wearing one of those dresses.”</p>
<p>She laughs a little at that. “Kylo, what are you…”</p>
<p>“I’m glad you’re here,” he whispers.</p>
<p>The other two have long-since passed, but Kylo doesn’t move away from her, instead nuzzling her neck. And Rey can’t be bothered to move. She feels <em>something</em>, pressed up against Kylo. It’s more than just arousal. She’s felt that plenty of times. She <em>knows</em> that. But this…this is more.</p>
<p>It feels like comfort.</p>
<p>Like <em>belonging</em>.</p>
<p>She stiffens at that thought. She <em>doesn’t</em> belong here, and she needs to keep reminding herself of it. This isn’t her world, no matter all the Lady Reys and the etiquette lessons. “Kylo, no,” she whispers, and she can feel her heart shatter a little. It’s lovely, but it’s a dream.</p>
<p>He releases her immediately, letting her step away and turn back to him. “This isn’t real,” she says.</p>
<p>“It could be.”</p>
<p>She sighs, glances over her shoulder at the glittering ball room. “No, Kylo. It really can’t.”</p>
<p>She walks off then. There’s a thud of a couple footsteps behind her and for a moment, she thinks he’s going to follow her. But he doesn’t. The footsteps stop.</p>
<p>She doesn’t turn back to look at him as she races off around the corner.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She’s packing to go when there’s a knock at the door and it opens a moment later to reveal Holdo. When she walks into Rey’s room, she takes one look at the ratty duffel bag Rey is shoving a few things into, the clothes they’d given her neatly stacked on the end of the bed. “You’re leaving?”</p>
<p>Rey shrugs. “It seemed to be the best idea.”</p>
<p>“Why do you say that?”</p>
<p>Rey tosses her shirt into the duffel bag. It’s the one she was wearing the day she was brought there, and it makes her feel <em>things</em>. “I think it’s rather obvious.”</p>
<p>“Less so than you might think.” Holdo takes a step toward Rey, and waves at the bed. “Please, sit down.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think so,” Rey says.</p>
<p>“As you wish,” Holdo says, inclining her head at Rey. “I can speak to you standing just as easily as sitting.”</p>
<p>Rey doesn’t move.</p>
<p>“Do you know why you were brought here?” Holdo asks.</p>
<p>Rey shrugs. “I’ve been asking that question since the day that Hux guy dragged me here.”</p>
<p>“A lot of girls would kill for this opportunity.,” Holdo points out.</p>
<p>“I’m not most girls.”</p>
<p>She’s surprised to see Holdo laugh at that. “No, Rey, you most certainly aren’t.”</p>
<p>Rey’s not sure if she should feel insulted at that, but she just shrugs it off. “Right and so…”</p>
<p>“There’s a ball at the castle in less than a week.”</p>
<p>“So?”</p>
<p>“Prince Benjamin has requested that all the girls from the finishing school be there.”</p>
<p>Prince Benjamin. She’s heard rumors about him, about his mother demanding he take a wife, about his refusals. “Again, I ask…so?”</p>
<p>“This is his final chance, Rey. His mother has demanded he choose a wife. He’s asked to have all the ladies from the school there.”</p>
<p>Rey just shakes her head. “So he can what? Pick out one of us like he’s picking a prized horse? Does the lucky lady get to marry him then and there? Sent off immediately to the bedroom to make his heir?”</p>
<p>“It doesn’t work like that…”</p>
<p>“No? Because it sure sounds like it.”</p>
<p>“Prince Benjamin will court someone he finds at the ball. This is the culmination of everything you all have been working for. You should see it through.”</p>
<p>Rey snorts. “You think he’s going to pick me? Yes, I’m sure the Queen would love to have a Jakku street rat succeed her for the throne.” The very idea of it is beyond ridiculous.</p>
<p>Holdo just watches her for a moment. “Consider it at least?”</p>
<p>Rey narrows her eyes on her. “Why does it matter?”</p>
<p>Something passes across Holdo’s face and Rey would be hard pressed to define just what she’d seen there for a moment. There’s a sort of strange resignation there in the lines of her face, but also a little bit of confusion and maybe even some humor. She shakes her head as she stands and places one hand on Rey’s shoulder. “Maybe you’re what he needs.”</p>
<p>Rey barely notices her leaving as she leans back on the bed with a huff. <em>She</em> is what the prince needs. Maybe if he were wondering how to pick someone’s pocket or hot wire a car. Or maybe if he wanted to figure out how to make some pretty damned good coffee.</p>
<p>The whole thing is just ridiculous and crazy. And yet…yet there’s a part of her that wants to go, that wants the experience. Maybe for just one night of her life, <em>she</em> can be one of the elite. She can spin and dance and laugh with the nobility.</p>
<p>For just one night.</p>
<p>And then she can go back to Maz and live out the rest of her life with that the memory of that one perfect night.</p>
<p>It has to be enough. Because she knows that’s all it’s going to be.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She doesn’t see Kylo in the week leading up to the ball. There’s a part of her that’s not surprised really, even if she finds herself staring at the dark corners of the rooms and hallways looking for him. She wonders where he’s gotten off to and thinks maybe their last exchange had been enough to finally push him away.</p>
<p>Everyone leaves her anyway, she supposes.</p>
<p>She’s difficult, prickly, and this strange world isn’t where she belongs.</p>
<p>But she hangs on.</p>
<p>She tries harder.</p>
<p>She uses the right fork, even if the only way she can do it is by watching the other girls.</p>
<p>She doesn’t step on the toes of her dance partner. Well, she doesn’t step on his toes <em>too</em> often at least. And he’s nice enough to not say anything about it. When they’re done, he bows, and she attempts what she thinks of as a curtsey.</p>
<p>When she looks up at Holdo, she actually has a smile on her face. Holdo nods at her and she realizes…she’s proud of her. She supposes she <em>has</em> come rather far in these weeks since being brought to the school.</p>
<p>In between the dancing classes and the etiquette lessons and all the last-minute preparations, Rey is shuffled off to various people who poke and prod at her, take her measurements, and bring out dress after dress.</p>
<p>She hates most of them.</p>
<p>Frilly, lacy, <em>pastel</em>. Rey sneers at all of them until <em>finally</em> one woman brings out <em>the</em> dress. It’s a shade of green so dark it’s almost black, with some black etching along the bodice and at the edges of the sleeves. It’s still a fucking corset, but she can deal with that as long as they don’t lace it up <em>too</em> tightly. The skirt lands about midway between knees and ankles and flares out at the waist, allowing plenty of movement in the legs.</p>
<p>It’s perfect for dancing.</p>
<p>It’s perfect for <em>her</em>.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s not the latest style,” the woman holding it says with a little sniff. She shrugs after a moment. “But it will do.” She passes it off to her assistant and then Rey is let go.</p>
<p>The dress will be ready on the night of the ball.</p>
<p>Rey’s just not sure <em>she</em> will.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The night of the ball is cool and clear. There’s the tang of autumn in the air, that sort of crisp coolness that precedes winter. Winters in Alderaan are difficult. The mountain passes get choked with snow and the snow coming off the nearby lakes means there are few days that are clear.</p>
<p>But Autumn is gorgeous, and Rey enjoys it every year, despite the shortness of the season.</p>
<p>The dress is delivered along with one of the maids, who tuts over Rey as she tries to do something with her limp hair, finally pulling it up in a twist and curling some of the ends that hang free.</p>
<p>Once hair and makeup are done, she helps her into the dress and a pair of low-heeled shoes. They’d wanted to put her in the typical high heels, but Rey knows she can barely dance in flats, so her shoes, dyed to match her dress, have only one-inch heels. She can move in them easily at least and the maid pulls her over to the full-length mirror in her room with a laugh.</p>
<p>Rey doesn’t recognize herself.</p>
<p>“I look like a fairy princess,” she murmurs, reaching out a hand toward the mirror. She almost expects the image to stay still, for surely it can’t be <em>her</em> there in the mirror.</p>
<p>“You do,” the maid assures her. She pats her lightly on the shoulder. “The Admiral’ll be here soon. You’ll go down with the rest of the girls.”</p>
<p>She still doesn’t entirely know what is all that expected of her at this ball, but she’ll follow Holdo and the other girls. She’ll watch and hang back and wait. She’s good at that…waiting. She’s waited a long time for her parents, for something good to happen to her, for many <em>many</em> things. So watching the other girls and making sure she makes the right choices? That’s easy. Far simpler than waiting for parents who may never return for her.</p>
<p>There’s a knock on the door some fifteen minutes after the maid has departed and Rey rushes to the door. Holdo stands there, a few of the other girls already behind her. For a moment she looks a little taken aback, and then she smiles.</p>
<p>“You clean up quite nicely,” she murmurs as Rey comes to join the rest of them.</p>
<p>“So I’ve been told,” Rey shoots back with. Holdo is certainly nothing if not the queen of backhanded compliments.</p>
<p>She leads them down the hallway, picking up the rest of the girls from the school as they go. They’re all tittering around her, excited voices, happy smiles. Rey feels like there’s a rock in the bottom of her stomach. She’s thankful she didn’t eat much before getting ready because she’s fairly certain she’d be throwing it up in the corner of the hallway if she had.</p>
<p>Holdo leads them down a hallway that Rey has never gone down before. She’s explored quite a bit, but this was always off limits, closed off by a set of doors that were bolted shut. Now they’re open and the hallway beyond them glints golden in the twinkling lights.</p>
<p>She can hear the sounds of strings, coming from somewhere at the end of the hallway. They walk toward it, the music getting louder. Voices are raised, shouts of recognition, the joyfulness of friends meeting again.</p>
<p>And then Holdo is stepping out into the brightness of the ballroom. Rey squints a little as she follows her, eyes trying to adjust to the glare of the lights. There are what seem to be hundreds of people milling about. A few are dancing already, and she smiles at the beautiful women dancing on the arms of their handsome men.  It’s lovely to behold and for a moment, she stands entranced.</p>
<p>“You can join them soon enough,” Holdo says softly as she comes to stand next to Rey.</p>
<p>“I…yes…yes I suppose I can.”</p>
<p>“Come then, we’ll introduce you all to the King and Queen, and then it’s off with you to enjoy the ball.”</p>
<p>“Is the prince here?”</p>
<p>Holdo’s look as she watches her for a moment is inscrutable, but then her eyes scan the room. “No. I don’t believe he’s arrived just yet.”</p>
<p>Rey nods and follows along with Holdo and the other girls as they’re led toward the dais at the head of the ballroom. She can see Queen Leia and King Han sitting in their seats there. Leia sits up straight, her hair a braided mass that frames her winds in graceful curves around the top of her head. The crown sitting in the middle of the mass of hair seems tiny, delicate. She holds herself with the bearing one would expect of a monarch.</p>
<p>Han slouches in his chair and she’s amused to see the queen turn toward him and swat his arm lightly. He sits up a little straighter, but there’s still an insolent half-grin on his face that seems somehow familiar. She’s not sure if she’s seen him before. The papers tend to focus on the queen, and often deride the king as ineffectual at best. Leia is the politician. Han is the affable one.</p>
<p>When she is pushed forward, she curtseys as she’s been taught to do. The queen nods. And Han is smirking at her when her eyes meet his.</p>
<p>“I hear you’re from Jakku,” he says.</p>
<p>Rey pulls herself up. “I am,” she says. She won’t be cowed, not by these people.</p>
<p>That smirk settles on his face again. “Tough place, Jakku. I’m from Corellia.”</p>
<p>She sags a little. Corellia is just as rough as Jakku. “Corellia? But you…”</p>
<p>He shrugs. “I was a smuggler.” He seems proud of that fact. “Gave it up for this one,” he says, hooking a thumb over at Leia, who’s watching him with a bit of exasperation, a bit of indulgence.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know,” Rey whispers.</p>
<p>“Most people don’t.”</p>
<p>“I stole car parts,” she says, and hears the gasp from the girls around her. “I mean, I didn’t <em>want</em> to, but…”</p>
<p>“No need to explain,” Han says. “We all have a past.”</p>
<p>“We should move on,” Holdo interrupts with, gripping Rey a little harder at the elbow than she’s comfortable with. She tries to pull away, but Holdo just drags her off.</p>
<p>“That went better than I expected,” Holdo whispers in her ear. “He likes you.”</p>
<p>Rey stops dead in her tracks. “He…”</p>
<p>Holdo nods. “The king,” Holdo supplies. “Now go…dance. I’m sure there will be plenty of young men looking to be added to your card.”</p>
<p>Rey doubts that very much, but with a nod, she steps away from Holdo and makes her way closer to the dance floor.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rey has lost all track of time. Her dance card is nearly full, and she’s been whirled out onto the floor by one young man after another. They’re all exceedingly charming. Except Hux. He pulls her out onto the dance floor after sneering at the man who was supposed to for that round.</p>
<p>It’s no doubt beneath him to actually put his name on her card.</p>
<p>She doesn’t like him.</p>
<p>He’s appropriate with her at least, even if he’s a little forceful.</p>
<p>As they finish and he bows over her hand, he takes a step closer.</p>
<p>Rey holds her ground. She refuses to back down, not for this one. “He’s not going to choose you,” he sneers in her ear before walking off.</p>
<p>“I don’t care,” Rey mutters after him. She doesn’t. Why <em>would</em> she care if some prince she doesn’t know chose <em>her</em> or some other girl he doesn’t give two figs about? “This is stupid.”</p>
<p>She’s turns to look for the last young man who had been pushed aside by Hux. She owes him a dance after all. But that’s interrupted by the sound of blaring trumpets. She slams her hands over her ears as the fanfare continues.</p>
<p>It takes her a moment to realize everyone is clearing the dance floor, rushing off to hug the walls of the room, all of their eyes going to where the king and queen sit.</p>
<p>The trumpets stop playing their fanfare.</p>
<p>A hush falls over the room.</p>
<p><em>The prince,</em> Rey thinks. She’s finally going to see this mysterious Prince Benjamin that she keeps hearing about. She hears he’s handsome. She hears he’s a recluse. One girl had told her that he was a recluse because he was hideous, with a hump on one side and a giant mole on his chin. And she can’t even repeat some of the <em>other</em> things that she’s heard about him.</p>
<p>Queen Leia stands and holds up her hand. “Thank you all for coming tonight. May I present to you my son, Prince Benjamin.” She says nothing else, just waves off to the side.</p>
<p>All eyes move as one to the entrance to the room.</p>
<p>And he steps through.</p>
<p>Not Prince Benjamin.</p>
<p><em>No</em>.</p>
<p>It’s <em>Kylo</em>.</p>
<p>And she expects a huge shout to go up when everyone realizes they’re being duped.</p>
<p>But…they don’t. They bow. The women curtsey as he passes. It takes her a moment to realize that he’s dressed in the same purples and blacks that the Queen and King are. It takes her an even longer moment to realize that he’s wearing a <em>crown</em>.</p>
<p>He’s moving closer to her and every step he takes in her direction makes the rock in her stomach feel like it’s rising like bile, choking her.</p>
<p>She should run.</p>
<p>Escape.</p>
<p>Leave the castle and never return.</p>
<p>Instead, she stands frozen in place, eyes following everywhere he moves. Each girl is presented to him, and he bows over their hands, but he’s not watching them. His eyes are moving around the room until, at last, they fall on her.</p>
<p>She draws in a breath as his eyes meet hers. She’s surprised to see him suck a similar breath in, his eyes widening and his lips falling slightly open. He’s staring at her and everyone is starting to notice, their heads turning, a few whispers making their way to her ears.</p>
<p>And then it’s like she’s watching a movie in slow motion. He drops the girl’s hand, ignores the next one to be presented, and takes a step toward her.</p>
<p>Then another.</p>
<p>And another.</p>
<p>Until he’s standing frozen in front of her, watching her with wary eyes.</p>
<p>You could hear a pin drop in the room, she realizes, as they stare at each other. Everyone is holding their breath, waiting, wondering. <em>Is this the girl he’ll court?</em></p>
<p>“Rey,” he finally manages to get out. There’s a little hiccup in his voice as he says her name.</p>
<p>She blinks.</p>
<p>“<em>Kylo</em>.” His name comes out on a hiss. He rears back a little, as if she’d physically slapped him. “You’re no one, you told me.”</p>
<p>“I…”</p>
<p>“No,” she cuts him off with. “Don’t speak.”</p>
<p>There’s a gasp from behind her. Holdo, she thinks. Or one of the other girls. <em>How dare she speak to the fucking </em>prince<em> that way!</em></p>
<p>He inclines his head.</p>
<p>“You brought me here.” It’s not a question. It’s a statement. She knows. There can be no other explanation. And she thinks that she’s always known. Maybe not that he was the prince. That she could not have imagined. But she knew that her being here was <em>his</em> doing. Kylo’s. Prince Benjamin’s. Whoever he really is.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Why?” She holds a hand up. “The truth.”</p>
<p>“Because I wanted to.” Such simple words. So much meaning.</p>
<p>“You can’t just play with people’s lives like this. You can’t play with <em>my</em> life like this.” Her voice has gone a little higher. She feels that rock in her stomach release <em>fire</em>. “You dragged me out of my comfortable life, away from everything I’ve ever known and for what? To make a fool out of me?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Well, it may not have been your intention, but congratulations. It’s exactly what you achieved.” She looks around at everyone, at all the courtiers who are staring at her. <em>And you thought using the wrong fork was the worst you could do</em>. “I am a fool.” <em>Fuck, Rey. Don’t cry. Not here. Not in front of all these people</em>.</p>
<p>There’s nothing left for her there. The glittering ballroom, the beautiful music, the swirl of the dancers’ skirts as they move about the floor. It was a beautiful dream whose broken pieces are shattered on the floor.</p>
<p>Rey does the only thing she can think of in that moment, the only sensible thing. “Goodbye, Kylo,” she whispers, and then turns, striding out of the room with her head held high.</p>
<p>She can hear him calling after her, but she doesn’t turn around. If she does, she’ll break.</p>
<p>Just as she’s about to exit the room completely, she sees a movement off to her left. King Han. He’s sat back down on his throne, leaning sideways in it, and he’s watching her with a grim, proud look on his face. She nods at him and then she’s gone, out into the hallway where she can let the tears flow.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She returns to Maz that night with nothing but the clothes on her back. She doesn’t go back for any of her things. She doesn’t want any of it. Not the clothes she had come in, nor the brushes or cosmetics or <em>anything</em>. She’ll leave it all there to rot for all she cares.</p>
<p>
  <em>Kylo is Prince Ben.</em>
</p>
<p>He’s not no one. She knew that, of course. There was no way he could skulk around the castle like he did, never working, always there, and be <em>no one</em>. She had thought that perhaps he was in their army. He had never directly told her worked for or <em>with</em> Hux, but she had assumed he did. Maybe some underling He had implied as much.</p>
<p>She thought she’d been brought there because someone did Kylo a favor.</p>
<p>
  <em>Why did he want me?</em>
</p>
<p>None of it made sense.</p>
<p>She hails a passing taxi on the road some half a mile from the castle. She has no money. But it’s clear she’s one of <em>them</em>. She tells the driver to send the bill to Prince Benjamin. He’ll pay. She tells him to include a generous tip. She doesn’t care how much money. Add a few hundred onto it. She personally guarantees the prince will pay and if he doesn’t, the driver can come find her at the café. She’s good for the money once she can tap back into her meager bank account.</p>
<p>When she pounds on the door of the café, she’s relieved to find Maz right there. The old woman takes one look at her, standing on the outside of the door, and her face crumbles. She flings the door open and wraps Rey up in a hug.</p>
<p>“Oh, child,” she murmurs.</p>
<p>One of the many things Rey loves about Maz is that she doesn’t ask questions. She pulls her inside and sets a coffee pot going while telling her to go downstairs and change into something more comfortable.</p>
<p>When Rey returns, they just <em>sit</em>. They sip their decaf coffee, eat their weight in day-old scones. Maz tells her the place hasn’t been the same without her and their customers miss her.</p>
<p>She tells Maz she’ll resume her duties the next day.</p>
<p>She doesn’t have to say anything else. She will, eventually, of course. Maz will work it out one way or another if she doesn’t. She just has that way about her. Quiet and resolute, with a heart at least four times her size. Maz is <em>home</em>.</p>
<p>“Get some rest, child,” she says, as they finish the last of their coffee. “Tomorrow will be a better day.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>In her first week back at the café, Rey jumps every time the door opens. She fears every person who enters will be <em>him</em>.</p>
<p>Kylo.</p>
<p>Ben.</p>
<p>The fucking prince.</p>
<p>She doesn’t even know what to call him anymore. In her mind, he’s always Kylo, and she remembers the feel of his lips, soft against hers. He’d been so hesitant, his cheeks turning bright red when she let him know he could kiss her.</p>
<p>But he’s not Kylo, the mystery man she ‘d been so taken with. She barely knows him.</p>
<p><em>You don’t know him at all</em>.</p>
<p>She was drawn to him. She’d wanted to know more about him, wanted to get to know him. That kiss, the way he’d held her outside the ballroom, as if he somehow understood her need to watch it all from the outside. She had hoped, if she really could admit it to herself, that when the whole finishing school thing was over, perhaps they might go out on a date.</p>
<p>A <em>date</em>. A fucking date. The prince doesn’t <em>date</em>. He <em>courts</em>. That’s what that night had been about, finding the woman he wanted to court, the woman he wanted to pursue for marriage. She’d heard all the stories from Rose, about how he’d not found someone on his own, how he’d passed over everyone his mother had tried to fix him up with.</p>
<p><em>The picky bastard</em>.</p>
<p>“You knew,” Rey accuses Rose of during her first conversation with her since she’d run from the castle.</p>
<p>“I suspected,” Rose admits. “I didn’t know for sure. But your description…”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Rey sighs. “I can’t believe I’d never seen a photo of him before.” She knows she hadn’t. She would have remembered that face, with its long nose, intense eyes, the gorgeous wavy hair that hides his over-large ears.</p>
<p>“Things are kinda tense here, babe,” Rose tells her. “The prince is on a real rampage. He sent all the girls from the finishing school home.”</p>
<p>“All of them?”</p>
<p>“He did.”</p>
<p>“So he didn’t…”</p>
<p>“Pick one of them? No. Apparently it was a <em>huge</em> row with his mother when he threw them all out and told Holdo that the school was officially closed.”</p>
<p>Rey can’t quite grasp what he’s doing. “I don’t understand…”</p>
<p>“No one does,” Rose admits. “He hasn’t been seen since he told Holdo the school was over. He just…disappeared.”</p>
<p>“And that’s strange?”</p>
<p>Rose doesn’t speak for a moment. “Stranger than usual I suppose. The whole castle seems kind of on edge.”</p>
<p>They hang up soon after that and Rey is still not sure what to think. There had been the kiss. That fucking kiss. And she just has no idea what any of it means.</p>
<p>“Put it from your mind, Rey,” she mutters to herself as she heads back up to the café for her afternoon shift.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rey thinks, after nearly three weeks of being home, that it’s well and truly over. Maz teases her sometimes for her posture, and so Rey finds herself trying to slouch a little bit more. But she can’t for some reason. It’s like whatever they did there to her has somehow stuck.</p>
<p>Oh, the fork thing hasn’t.</p>
<p>She still doesn’t care about that.</p>
<p>But she carries herself with a bit more grace, a little more dignity. She’s changed, but she’s still <em>her</em>. And she won’t let them take that from her. She won’t let Kylo or Ben whoever he really is take any of <em>her</em> from her.</p>
<p>She’s in the back putting another group of scones in the oven when she hears a commotion out front. Maz has hired another girl to help out. Rey knows Maz thought she’d never return and there’s a part of her that’s somewhat bitter over the new girl. But…she’s taken her under her wing anyway.</p>
<p>But now she sounds…frantic? “Rey! <em>Rey!</em> Get out here!”</p>
<p>“Fuck,” Rey mutters. She’s probably spilled something or pissed off a customer or…</p>
<p>When she races out into the front to help smooth over whatever calamity has befallen the poor girl, she stops dead in her tracks and stares.</p>
<p>“K…k…” the girl is saying, and Rey steps over, puts a hand on her shoulder.</p>
<p>“Go,” she says. “I’ll take care of this.”</p>
<p>The girl scrambles out of there and Rey lets out a breath. “King Han,” she says as she faces him. He doesn’t look like a king, not standing in the middle of her café wearing that half smirk she associates with his son, faded jeans, and a ratty oil-stained sweatshirt.</p>
<p>He shrugs. “I was hoping no one would recognize me.” There’s a bit of a sheepish turn to his voice.</p>
<p>“You’re the <em>king</em>,” Rey points out.</p>
<p>“Yeah, but…” He steps closer to her, his tone a little conspiratorial. “Only by blood.”</p>
<p>She laughs. He’s absolutely ridiculous and she finds she really likes him quite a lot. Perhaps more than she should, really. “You’re still the king,” she points out.</p>
<p>He shrugs.</p>
<p>“Why are you here?” Rey finally asks into the silence that falls.</p>
<p>“Ben said you weren’t one for mincing words.”</p>
<p>“He told you about me?” It’s strange hearing him referred to as <em>Ben</em>. He’s been Kylo in her head for weeks. It’s like he’s someone else now, someone <em>more</em>. He was just Kylo, this guy who found her café in the middle of a rainstorm, like he came directly out of a rom-com. But <em>Ben</em>? Did she even know who he was at all?</p>
<p>“Kid doesn’t say much, mind you,” Han says. “But he might have mentioned you a couple times. He and that Hux guy got into a huge row over you.” He laughs at that, just a soft little huff.</p>
<p>“Oh.” She can imagine that. Hux did <em>not</em> seem happy to fetch her. And he seemed even less happy to see her at the castle the few times she happened across him. “He made Hux come get me.”</p>
<p>Han nods. “He might have mentioned that.”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>Han shrugs at that. “I think you should ask him that yourself.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again.” <em>It’s over, Rey</em>, she keeps telling herself, even if she feels a deep sadness at the thought. She barely knows him. They’ve had one longer conversation, exchanged a handful of words, kissed, but there was something <em>deeper</em> there that she can’t explain. A connection, some sort of force that seems to bind them together.</p>
<p>He had been watching her.</p>
<p>But she had been watching <em>him</em> too, she realizes, always keeping an eye out for him and feeling this little sense of excitement when his eyes met hers.</p>
<p>“Don’t be so certain of that,” Han says. He reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Look, I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You kinda ran out of there fast. You know, at the ball and all.”</p>
<p>She nods. “Yes, well…Kylo…Ben…”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I know. The kid’s not always so bright, see?” He shrugs. “Just look…he’s probably going to come around sometime.” He holds his hand up. “I just know, okay? He’s persistent, even when he’s scared.”</p>
<p>Rey scoffs at that, and Han must have noticed. His whole face softens even more.</p>
<p>“Oh, he’s terrified, that’s for sure. That kid’s impulsive as all get out, and so he ran with his heart and not his head. And now we have…this.” He waves his hand toward her. “Ben’s terrified to <em>feel</em> things. I don’t know why he’s that way. He just is. And you scare him. But he won’t be able to stay away.”</p>
<p>Rey just nods. She has absolutely no idea what to say to that exactly. He’s hinting at things she’s not really ready to face. <em>You’re scared too. </em></p>
<p>“So when he comes around, give him a chance?” There’s this strange, hopeful look on his face, and she realizes he’s trying to set them up.</p>
<p>She can’t help herself. She feels a little giggle bubble up at the thought. The King of Alderaan trying to set <em>her</em>, a Jakku street rat, up with his son. “I’m sorry,” she says and laughs a little harder. “This is ridiculous.”</p>
<p>Han joins her in her laughter a moment later, and it feels good. Like she hasn’t laughed in a hundred years. Maybe she hasn’t. Her life has been one of strife, of always struggling just to make it to the next day, the next month, the next year. Joy, laughter, the lightness of just finding humor in life. She’s not used to that.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I suppose it is,” he finally says as the laughter fades away. “Just…think about it, okay?”</p>
<p>She nods, her smile disappearing a little. “I will.”</p>
<p>He reaches out and clasps her on the upper arm for just a moment, and then he saunters out the door.</p>
<p>“Oh fucking hell,” comes the voice of the other worker from behind her. “That really was the king, wasn’t it?”</p>
<p>Rey smirks. “Yeah. Yeah, it was.” She turns back to where the other woman is standing, mouth half open. “Come on then,” Rey says. “Let’s get back to work.”</p>
<p>As they head back to prepare for the influx of afternoon customers, Rey can’t help but hold her hand tight over her stomach. Maybe that will tame the butterflies.</p>
<p><em>When he comes around…</em>She’s not quite sure she’s ready for that.</p>
<hr/>
<p>It takes Kylo…<em>Ben</em>…another week and a half to show up. It’s late one night, not really so different from the first time he showed up at the café. It’s colder, heading toward winter now, with a bite of frost in the air. It will snow soon, the cold coming down from the north to sweep in over the mountains and blanket their little valley in white.</p>
<p>It’s one of her favorite times of year.</p>
<p>Maz has headed off and Rey is just shutting off the lights when she hears someone pound on the door. “Oh fuck, not another one,” she mutters to herself. She steps closer to the door and reaches up for the shades. “We’re closed!” she calls.</p>
<p>The shades are halfway down when she sees him.</p>
<p>Kylo.</p>
<p>Ben Solo.</p>
<p>The <em>prince</em>.</p>
<p>Standing on the other side, he looks a little ragged, with dark circles beneath his eyes, his hair hanging in lank strands on the sides of his face. He’s not soaked to the skin this time at least. It’s been dry these past many days.</p>
<p>“Let me in?” There’s a strange, pleading note to his voice.</p>
<p>She has half a mind to just shut the shades and walk off. Let him stew. Let him go home and report that he’d failed. Let him go have another ball, pick another girl, ruin <em>her</em> life by dragging her out of her home to a world of glamor and beauty that she never could be a part of.</p>
<p>But then she meets his eyes, watches the way his eyebrows draw up a little. “Rey,” he says, one hand pressed against the glass. “Please?”</p>
<p>It undoes her, that one word, and before she can even think about what she’s doing, she has the door open, and she’s stepping back to let him inside. There’s no puddle this time. Just <em>Ben</em>, hands shoved in his pockets and clearly trying to look small. Which is frankly impossible.</p>
<p>She stares at him.</p>
<p>He stares at the floor.</p>
<p>“Why are you here?” she finally asks.</p>
<p>He lets out a shaky laugh. “I..” he starts to say. He shakes his head, lips pressed together, a furrow between his brows. “Fuck, I don’t know.”</p>
<p>Rey makes a little huffing noise. “Well then maybe you should go.”</p>
<p>“No,” he says.</p>
<p>“No?”</p>
<p>“Dammit,” he mutters. “I’m doing this all wrong.”</p>
<p>“It seems you’ve done everything wrong so far,” Rey says and almost instantly regrets it. His cheeks turn red and he sighs.</p>
<p>“You’re right. I did. I still am, I guess. Can we…” He clears his throat. “Can we sit down? I just…it’s hard talking to you when you’re standing there like that.”</p>
<p>“Like what?”</p>
<p> He waves a hand at her. “Like <em>that</em>. With your arms crossed over your chest and staring me down like that.”</p>
<p>Rey glances down at herself and realizes he’s right. She uncrosses her arms and takes a deep breath. “I’m still mad at you,” she admits. “But okay.”</p>
<p>She retreats to one of the tables, pulling two chairs down and siting in one. She has to stop herself from crossing her arms over her chest again so instead leans forward and watches him as he comes to sit in the other chair.</p>
<p>He takes a deep breath. “I suppose I should explain myself?”</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>“I…fuck, I don’t know how to, Rey. It’s just, you let me in that night. You know? You had no idea who I was, which was such a <em>relief</em>. There was no bowing and scraping and Prince Ben this or Prince Ben that. You were…kind to me, I guess?”</p>
<p>“And so, what? You thought that was a good reason to disrupt my entire life.”</p>
<p>“I’m not explaining myself very well, am I?” Another deep breath. “Okay, let me lay all my cards on the table. I like you, Rey. I like you a lot. When I met you that night, I was under a lot of pressure. I still am. My parents want me to find a wife. I’m almost 30, you see, and well, <em>heirs</em> and all that.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I know.” Her voice is flat.</p>
<p>“I don’t give a fuck about all of that stuff.” The words very nearly explode out of him. “Heirs and the throne and marriage. I’m not married because I don’t give a fuck. If I cared about getting an heir on someone, I would have let my parents pick someone and gotten on with it.”</p>
<p>Rey’s still trying to figure out what the hell any of this means when he reaches across the table and takes her hand in his. There’s this jolt of electricity when his hand touches hers and she almost jumps back from it. Instead, she lets him wrap his long fingers around hers and pull her hand closer to him.</p>
<p>He almost looks like he’s going to kiss it, but he doesn’t. He leaves their hands joined on the table.</p>
<p>“My parents wanted me to pick a woman to court the night of the ball.”</p>
<p>“So I heard,” she mutters.</p>
<p>“It’s why I wanted you to be there.”</p>
<p>“At the ball.”</p>
<p>“Everywhere,” he says. “I thought…I don’t even know. I thought if my parents saw you and you were this beautiful lady, then when I told them I wanted to court you, they’d approve.” He shakes his head. “That sounds so fucking stupid when I say it that way.”</p>
<p>Rey can feel herself softening. “So you brought me to that school because of that?”</p>
<p>“It was stupid, wasn’t it?” There’s that half-smile that she’s learning to love so much.</p>
<p>“Extremely.” She pulls her hand from his. “Your father came here,” she tells him.</p>
<p>A furrow forms between his brows and he drops her hand as he stares at her. “Here? To the café?” She nods. “Why?”</p>
<p>“I’m…” She stops for a moment, regroups. “I’m pretty sure he approves.” She laughs a little at that. <em>Just give him a chance</em>…She supposes she could do that much for another street rat. “Look, K…dammit, I still want to call you Kylo. Why did you lie to me?”</p>
<p>“About my name?”</p>
<p>“About who you <em>were</em>?”</p>
<p>“I wanted you to like me for <em>me</em>.” He pauses there, presses his lips together, runs his hand through his hair. “It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud.”</p>
<p>“No,” Rey says. “No, it doesn’t.” It makes sense, she realizes. “Not that it excuses it, mind you.”</p>
<p>“Of course not.” For a moment, the half smirk is there. But it disappears quickly as he reaches for her hand again.</p>
<p>She lets him take it, and then lets him take her other hand in his too. “So where does this lead us?” she asks.</p>
<p>“Starting over?” There’s a note of hope in his voice, and she nods. “Let me introduce myself then. My name is Ben Solo. Please don’t listen to the rumors you’ve heard about me. Yes, I’m a prince. No, I don’t care. I’d give it all up for the right woman.”</p>
<p>“That’s a lot.”</p>
<p>“Too much?”</p>
<p>She smirks. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”</p>
<p>“You know,” he says, squeezing her hands a little. “We never did get that dance.”</p>
<p>“Oh, no,” she says. “You don’t want to dance with me.”</p>
<p>“I do,” he says, and he stands, pulling her with him. “You got a radio around here or something?”</p>
<p>“Just the overhead music,” she says with a laugh. “It’s really awful.”</p>
<p>“Better than nothing! Turn it on!”</p>
<p>She turns toward the counter, where the switch for the overhead music is located. He won’t let go of her hand though, so she drags him over to it and hits the switch. The really terrible cheesy easy listening music that Maz has playing all the time int the café comes over the loudspeaker. Rey turns it up a little louder than usual and cringes.</p>
<p>He laughs at the sound and shakes his head. “Wow, this is really bad.”</p>
<p>“Told you,” she responds with.</p>
<p>He laughs again and pulls her into his arms. She goes easily enough, and she has that feeling again, like the last time he held her. Safety, comfort, <em>home</em>. She doesn’t pull away this time, instead letting him lead her in an impromptu dance. Her twirls her about the room until they collide with one of the tables, sending a couple chairs that were stacked on top of it crashing to the ground.</p>
<p>“Oops,” he says with a grin that tells her he finds the whole thing amusing.</p>
<p>“You’re not even remotely sorry for that,” she points out.</p>
<p>“Did I say I was?”</p>
<p>She laughs, and he leans down toward her. “I’m going to kiss you again.”</p>
<p>“And then?” she murmurs. His face is almost too close for her to focus on, and she can feel his breath fan out across her face.</p>
<p>“And then I’m going to take you out on a date and charm the pants off you.”</p>
<p>“Literally?” she can’t help but ask.</p>
<p>Even from this close she can see how red his cheeks get. And his ears too. The tips that are sticking out of his hair have turned bright red. “Well…”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t mind,” she interrupts him with. “But maybe just start with the kiss?”</p>
<p>And then he does exactly that, leaning down to kiss her, just a soft brushing of his lips against hers. “Just one,” he says, and she thinks she could learn to love him. He stands back up straight then and moves to right the two chairs that are on the ground. “See, good as new.”</p>
<p>“Right.”</p>
<p>She’s watching him as he looks quickly around the place. “Are you all done here?”</p>
<p>“I can be.”</p>
<p>“So how about that date?”</p>
<p>Her eyebrows shoot up. “Now?”</p>
<p>“No time like the present. I know this great little Italian bistro…”</p>
<p>“Where?” There’s Italian food in town, but nothing she’d call a <em>bistro</em>. There’s just Antonio’s. He serves greasy pizza and some pretty decent lasagna, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>“Italy,” he says with a laugh, reaching for her hand to tug her toward the door.</p>
<p>“How about I take <em>you</em> out instead,”</p>
<p>“Wait, but I’m the…” He stops when he sees the look on her face. “Right, of course, lead the way milady.”</p>
<p>She laughs, taking his hand and walking out the door with him. As equals, she thinks, and happily drags him off to one of her favorite Indian joints. This is the start of something, for sure, and she finds she’s looking forward to wherever it might go.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Dear giftee -- I hope you like this at least a little! I could not find a way with the premise I ended up working with to work in smut (I think it's the demisexual in me! lol). But if you want a smutty sequel, say that word and I am so there!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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